


Facets

by WordBirdNerd



Category: Final Fantasy XI
Genre: Enneagram, Gen, Zilart, fairly gamey, philosophical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24522436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordBirdNerd/pseuds/WordBirdNerd
Summary: A bickering party ventures into Delkfutt's Tower and is never the same again. Have their rescuers experimented on them, or is it all in their heads... or has Promathia cursed them anew?
Kudos: 1





	1. The Soul Steps Blind

**Author's Note:**

> Had interest in this from non-FFXI corners, so here's a little FFXI background. No other helpful information here, FFXI players can skip this :)
> 
> The World of Vana'diel: Peoples  
> Humes: No particular trait stands out about the humes, except perhaps adaptability. Said to be cursed by the Twilight God Promathia with apathy.  
> Elvaan: Tall and long-necked, with long, pointed ears. Their culture is formal and traditional. Said to be cursed by the Twilight God with arrogance.  
> Mithra: Small and lithe, with catlike features, including upright ears and a tail. Most mithra are female, and mithra society is matriarchial. Said to be cursed with envy.  
> Tarutaru: Less than half the height of a hume, big-headed and wide-eyed. Known for their study of magic and disarmingly cute ways of speaking, such as rhyming. Said to be cursed with cowardice.  
> Galka: Tall, bulky, grey, and hairy. Genderless, but generally considered male. The galka have had a painful history. Said to be cursed with rage.  
> These curses are called the "chains of Promathia" or "chains of evil."
> 
> The World of Vana'diel: Nations  
> Bastok: A young republic fueled by industry and mining. Its most numerous group is humes, followed by galka.  
> San d'Oria: Home of the elvaan, this kingdom is steeped in knightly and religious tradition.  
> Windurst: The Federation of Windurst values magic and the natural world. Inhabited primarily by tarutaru and mithra.  
> Jeuno: Central, neutral nation, a hub of trade and information exchange. The source of many revolutionary technological advancements.
> 
> The World of Vana'diel: Misc.  
> The moon appears to change color over the days of the week, perhaps due to elemental energy in the air.  
> Linkshells are magical devices that produce linkpearls, used to communicate over long distances.  
> Prism powder renders things invisible, while it lasts. Prism powder and silent oil are used to avoid detection and travel safely.

"Hey, Iron Eater?" Naji called through the open entrance of the stone administrative building. "Remember the lady who wanted to warn us that Jeuno experimented on her or something?"

Another conspiracy theorist. "Yes."

"She's, ah, got two other people here saying the same thing. She really wants the president to hear about it. Can we at least hear the whole story this time?"

"Was this the long story about the training party shouting at each other?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that one. She didn't even get to the important part."

"Very well. Let us hear it."

Naji rounded the corner and motioned for the petitioners to follow. The hume accompanying him did look passingly familiar. Her brilliant red-orange tunic must have been fine once, but was now worn and dusty. She looked around, nervous. The elvaan behind her, in contrast, looked shaken but well-groomed, royal squire's tabard, armor, and long black hair neat. That one looked like a man, but much of that was due to sheer height. The mithra seemed unremarkable in comparison. Her loose linen robe showed some dirt and stain, but not recent. Her expression was neutral.

"Do you remember anything I said?" the hume began, hopefully.

"...You were training and you yelled at each other."

"I was training on Qufim Island. I was training to be a dark knight. I didn't _want_ to, but I was a member of a wyrm-hunting organization, and they expect that of red mages, so I did it. I didn't really think about it." She said this as though it were the strangest thing. Iron Eater didn't see what she was getting at.

"I was happy because this group was so good. There's nothing like having a bard around, right? Not to mention an experienced healer helping... but I didn't really worry then, not the way I do now. I didn't care about anything except that it was fast. Before long, we were skirmishing with the giants in the tower, and then they were no big deal. That's when the disagreement started."

The elvaan shook his head. "It started before that."

"What do you mean?"

"When we were by the cliffs. Vhel here resented having her job done for her. We were there to learn." The mithra looked uncomfortable.

The elvaan went on. "She all but said as much. She was obviously irritated. 'Haven't I been healing fine?'

"And you rolled your eyes and said, 'It doesn't matter.'

"And she went off on you. "'It doesn't matter? It doesn't matter if I do my job well? But you'll be the first to complain when someone screws up and things go wrong, right? This is exactly why people don't know what they're doing...'

"And you called her an idiot and then yelled at Calder again to go start already.

"He just said 'sorry. I'll get the hang of it.' I could tell he felt pushed to go faster. He was clearly new at all that sort of thing."

"Oh. Yes," she admitted, with a little sigh. "I was a jerk. But I was different then. I wanted to go to Kazham, but Calder didn't have an airship pass to get there. I was angry." She looked at the elvaan strangely. "And you were angry."

"I wasn't... I was hardly angry. I said people ought to have things like that. You insulted him."

"I know, all right? He must have felt terrible. And then Tokko-Mahokko said there were stronger giants further in the tower. He wanted us to stay with Calder. I wanted to stay with Tokko, because he was the bard." She laughed, a strange laugh for what she was saying, nervous, almost surprised. "We followed him, and he led us nowhere. It made me so mad, the waste of time... He was all, 'it's an adventure!'" She didn't seem too mad anymore. Perhaps a bit at the end.

"Eventually Mal left, and his friend who was helping us, and Tokko was saying, 'Hang on! This feels familiar, friends! I really think it's this next left!' and we rounded the corner and there was a door on the left." She shook her head, almost amazed. "I really should have worried after Mal's friend left, on our own in there, I had no idea where we were... He broke into a run, Tokko, he ran over and tried to open it, and it didn't budge.

"I took my time. I gave it a good kick. I wanted to leave, but instead I said, 'We need another person now anyway, so why don't the rest of us go to Kazham and Calder can go get an airship pass?'

"Vhel said, fake-sweetly, 'Why don't _you_ go to Kazham?' She didn't like me. I rolled my eyes.

"Calder said, 'I don't know how to do that, but you can all go. It's fine.'

"Bournefant here said he would help Calder, which made me mad, since his job was important, and then Vhel said she would too, just to spite me, right?" She looked at Vhel and laughed, half-nervously.

Vhel didn't say anything, but she didn't seem angry either. Maybe a little uncomfortable.

"Tokko just peered under the door and said, 'Hey, either it's stuck or it's locked, right? I don't see a keyhole or anything. Maybe there's a switch on the other side. Stick your greataxe through the hole and poke around.' The opening cut horizontally across the middle. Have you ever been to Delkfutt's Tower? That bone-like stuff, like the crags? You know the kind of door I mean? Through it I saw stairs curve down and to the right. I heard stomping below, and I positioned myself more carefully, thinking it might be a giant coming, but it was one of the stone constructs called dolls. A huge one, but I didn't feel any fear. I thought they only responded to spellcasting. Suddenly, the door opened. The doll grasped Tokko's head and bashed him against the wall. He yelped. He fell, unmoving.

"I wanted to run, but I knew I couldn't go back the way we came alone, and going forward was almost certainly a bad idea, so I tried to fight it off. We all did, I think. I hacked at it with my greataxe and it didn't seem to make a dent. Bournefant jumped back from its massive fists and marched rapidly backwards down the hall. It closed the distance easily and raised its arms. I saw a flash, and Bournefant collapsed. I tried to hide in the corner on the other side of the door. I pressed my back against the wall and tried to breathe without making any sound, but I knew I wasn't all that hidden.

"I waited, one long, frozen moment, and then it came through the door all at once and spun around. I saw its fist coming, shockingly fast, and that was it.

"I woke up lying on the floor on one side, hurting like hell. I was still in the tower, but in a room, a small empty room with a door without openings, no monsters, no people. I wondered if I was a prisoner of the giants. I called out, 'Hello?' No response. I pushed myself up. I felt weak and light-headed, but at least my pointy necklace wasn't poking my neck anymore. I tried the door. It didn't open. I didn't see any way out except for surprising a guard somehow and running, but I knew I wasn't up to running, much less through an occupied building. My body just wanted to lie down.

"I sat down and looked myself over. No open wounds. The blood on my tunica told me it had been hours, but not days. I tried my linkpearl. Gone. I took my pack off and had some water--still there. Then I took off my crossbow and its bolts, telling myself it would be just as easy to reach on the ground, but it didn't matter, because the bolt case was light, empty. I did sit there for a few minutes, but I hated being helpless, and having nothing to do. I wished I had a book to pass the time. I wished I were hunting wyrms, or training with my company, or practicing bonecraft, or gardening, or anything.

"I took off the necklace and curled up on the ground in my fur cloak. Eventually I slept, fitfully. At some point I woke up to see people in the room. They had no weapons or bags, and I wondered how they got up there. Well, down there, to the basement, but I didn't know that then. They wore the same kind of black robes with hoods and matching pants that widened toward the bottom, an unusual style..."

"All humes, no?" Bournefant interrupted.

"Yes." She looked from Iron Eater to Naji and near-whispered, "Did Bastok do this?"

"What, heal you?"

She glanced at her companions. "If it did, they'd already be dragging us off, right? This is a government building... I should have thought..."

They shrugged.

"And that would mean Bastok would be trying to frame Jeuno, so they would welcome these accusations, not dismiss them... It is strange, though, now that you mention it, I just can't think why..."

"All one family?" Bournefant suggested. When no one replied, he raised a new question. "Do you... do you think what they did was what they intended to do? Why anyone would meddle with such things is difficult to fathom."

"We don't know what they did," she reminded him.

"You mean we don't know how. I wonder whether this was the intended effect. It's possible that whatever they did cursed themselves as well as us. Or were we, in the end, as much released as cursed?" he mused.

She gave him a look. "I mean we don't know the effects. It could be anything."

"This is hardly a side effect. This is world-shattering."

"What do you mean?"

"The curse of the Twilight God. The chains of evil."

"You think doctors from Jeuno have the power of the Twilight God?"

"I do not. In fact, my faith demands otherwise. Yet it is what happened."

"That's ridiculous," she said, but she didn't seem to believe it.

"Even the tellers of this tale find it ridiculous?"

"His theories about it are beside the point! We all agree about what happened."

"And what is that?"

"I'm telling you. They asked me how I felt. I asked what was going on..."

/////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

One of them said, "You are in critical condition and cannot be moved." He waited for a reaction. The other one seemed deep in focus, except when he was taking notes.

"I could walk," I said, but part of me doubted it. "What happened to my linkpearl?"

"It must have been lost." He didn't sound very apologetic.

"What happened to my weapons?" I did get a bit suspicious. "Who exactly are you?"

"Doctors sent by the government of Jeuno," he recited, disinterested. "Your weapons were moved due to concern that you would be delirious. I will arrange for their return."

"How did you know we were here?"

"I suppose someone must have informed a guard." Another attentive pause. I didn't know what else to say. He asked, "Is there anything you want?"

I scowled. "I don't know. Something to do. I just want to be out of here."

The other one said, disdainfully but also dispassionately, "What happened was your fault."

"Excuse me!? What exactly was my fault? Kicking the door? How do you know, anyway?"

"Ignore him," said the first one. "It was not your fault." The second didn't respond.

I had no idea what to say to that. They watched me for about a minute, until I said, "How about some help sleeping, then?"

They cast a sleeping spell for me, and after that I slept soundly.

The next time I woke up, I felt like it had been a long time. I was hungry and thirsty, and felt stronger, but something was wrong, something setting off alarm bells in my head. I couldn't remember ever being so nervous, even with the wyrm hunters. I didn't like this at all. The same people were still there, or back. They smiled. I didn't like the way they smiled.

The same one asked how I felt, and I didn't know how to answer. Eventually I said the same thing: "What's going on?"

"You're recovering nicely."

"Can I leave?" I didn't like this place one bit. Something about these people just wasn't right. My thoughts raced, wondering what they wanted.

They remained silent.

Was that a no? Why were they so hesitant when they already told me I had to stay here? Was I going to die? Were they planning to torture me for some information? Ransom me to my company? To the government of Bastok? "Just tell me what you want with me!" I blurted out.

"Nothing. You will be able to leave soon."

I didn't believe them. "Where are my weapons?"

"They will be returned shortly." A pause. "Is there anything else you want?"

"What about my party? Are they all right?"

"All alive."

"Are they here? I want to talk to them."

"Yes. All in worse condition. You will see them soon."

What had I said to make Vhel dislike me? I wished I hadn't. What had I been thinking? We had to stick together. How could whether we went to Kazham matter compared to this?

Just like before, the other one said, "What happened was your fault."

For a moment I felt guilty, an emotional punch to the gut. My fault. But I knew it didn't make any sense. He was just saying it, for some reason.

"It was not your fault," repeated the first one, perfunctorily. They waited for a response. I was baffled, and I hated it.

One moved to the middle of the door and faced it. "Get some rest. You will see the others soon." I couldn't see what he did, but it opened. Should I dive for it? I wondered. What then? They were right there. They might grab me or cast a spell. Then they might punish me somehow--restrain me, or isolate me. I didn't know what to do. They left, and the door closed; the opportunity passed as quickly as it arrived, leaving me sitting there with a confusing mix of feelings. I had always been so decisive. I'd never had anything I would describe as "a confusing mix of feelings." That sounded like a cliche out of a book. What was wrong with me?

I thought about taking some more gear off, but I wanted to be ready to run, or fight. Instead I packed the crossbow in my bag. After a few minutes of nothing happening, I ate a bland but welcome meal of dried meat and water. I finished the flask and, well, used it for other purposes. I felt a bit better with some food in me, but not much. I spent an unpleasant hour, at least, going over the horrible things that could happen to me over and over again, and wondering why I was so anxious all of a sudden, around and around in circles.

At some point the door opened, with even less warning. Three of the hooded figures came in, and Vhel, with no bag or weapon either.

"I'm sorry, Vhel. I don't know why I said any of that. I don't know what I was thinking. Are you all right?"

Vhel looked a bit bemused. "It's fine. I don't know why I was mad either. I'd rather just... decide not to be upset, you know? It's not a big deal anyway."

"Not compared to this," I agreed.

"To what?"

I glanced around at the doctors, or whoever they were. "Doesn't this worry you at all? The doors are locked, our weapons are gone, they're not telling us anything..."

"Oh. I don't know, it is weird, but they haven't done anything bad..."

"But they could!" I stared one of them down. No reaction. They just watched us. "It's weird, and they have all the cards."

Vhel shrugged. Why was I so shaken up if she wasn't?

"I just have a really bad feeling about this."

"I see what you mean, but... what would we do about it? I figure I might as well not worry."

That was when I knew something was wrong. "Not to harp on this--I'm not blaming you--but you complained about someone _helping_ us long after you were outvoted and I told you to shut up. No sarcasm for these people? They don't trust you with a _wand._ "

"I don't know why I said that."

"Vhel, you're not yourself. They did something to you." I glanced at them. Still no reaction. I wondered if Vhel was going to become like them somehow, an impassive observer, and whether I would too, eventually.

That was the only thing I said that seemed to get to her. She took on a cool, blunt irritation. "Well, I feel fine."

Maybe she was fine. Maybe I was imagining things. Maybe they had done something to me.

We stood in silence until one said to her, "Come," and led her out. I barely considered trying to escape. Maybe I was wrong about this. Or maybe I was right, and if I disobeyed they would do to me what they did to her.


	2. The Roots of Sin

It must have been another hour or so, but they did bring another visitor, Tokko-Mahokko. He had his pack, and his instruments with their own holsters, whatever they're called, but no weapons.

"Hello. Glad to see you alive! Can I talk to you about your linkshell?"

"What?"

"What do you have to do to join a wyrm-hunting company? I know you haven't seen my best skills, and I can tell you about those, but I also want you to know that I work hard at whatever is necessary. I'm still learning, still fresh, if you will, but I intend to improve at an incredible pace."

I stared at him. "Uh, well, it depends what those skills are... Tokko, doesn't all this worry you at all?"

"I'm more than equal to the task, I assure you," he said, annoyed. "Just give me a little time to train, and then one chance to prove myself. That's all I'll need."

"What are you talking about? Doesn't it worry you that they locked the doors and took our weapons?" I asked desperately.

"Sure, of course, but they're letting me see you. I'm sure they'll let me leave any time now. I feel great. Better than ever, even. So, what does the company need? Thieves are required to have really rare equipment, right? How about black mages? I may be unpolished, but I have a solid foundation of substantial skill, and of course we tarutaru are of superior intelligence. Just the other day I did the star orb at Ghelsba with two other black mages and not only were my spells clearly the most potent, but I was by far the best at casting under pressure. No amount of rote learning in a normal group will teach you that. You've just got to be one of those people with a clue, you know what I mean?" He paused for a reaction, but not very patiently. "How about this? As soon as you feel well enough, we can go train at Kazham. We don't have to invite that slow guy, but we can ask that other guy and his _friend_ , and you can invite _your_ friends. I'll handle target management this time, and you'll see that I know what I'm doing."

That sounded like something I wanted, but somehow I didn't want it. I wasn't sure I even wanted to hunt wyrms anymore. I didn't care one bit about Tokko's skills, but to make him happy I said, "All right."

"Wonderful. You don't happen to be a black mage, do you? Any advanced advice?"

"No. I'm not."

"Ah, well. Last one I had to deal with would have monsters after him and just stand there in panic. I'm looking forward to working with a more competent caliber of combatant."

That's a better response than trying to run, I thought, everyone knows that. But I didn't say anything, and then he started again. "And the white mage didn't know Regen. I'm surrounded by subpar students."

That reminded me: "Tokko, have you seen Vhel?"

"I meant a different white mage. Did she also not know Regen? She was sitting around significantly, wasn't she?"

"Have you talked to her here?"

"Oh. Yes, she's here."

"Did she seem... off to you?"

He shrugged.

"Have you talked to anyone else?"

"Just that elvaan." He said it as though it weren't worth his time to say.

"Was he worried?"

"No. He only wanted to ramble about a ridiculous religious matter."

Maybe it was just me. I wondered if people ever just snapped out of nowhere.

"What's your opinion as to what a thief should focus on training after the basics are completely mastered?" He said it like he had an opinion, but I suspected he just wanted me to tell him the answer.

"I don't know. I'm not a thief."

I must have sounded really annoyed, because he said, "I just meant the job."

"I don't know! I don't care!"

He arched an eyebrow, but smiled, and said, "Maybe I've misjudged you a mite. What is your primary profession?"

I shook my head in disbelief. "Can I talk to Calder?"

"What? Why _him_?"

"He's the only one I haven't heard from! That's all. Weren't you the one who didn't want us to leave him?

He looked caught off-guard, uncomfortable. After a moment, he said, "Hey, it's better to make friends than enemies. You never know who's going places. Weren't you the one who did want to leave him?"

"That was before all this happened."

"None of this would have happened if we'd gone to Kazham."

"How were we supposed to know that? Maybe there are more of these people deep in the jungle. Or maybe we would have been attacked by tonberries. Who knows?"

He rolled his eyes. A moment later he said, "Surely you're more familiar with the area than that. You have been to the temple of Uggalepih, haven't you?"

"You never know."

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"Yes."

"Do you know it well? Did you ever find a thief's knife?"

He went on like that until they told him firmly to leave.

The next visit came sooner, but it wasn't Calder, it was Bournefant. He had changed from his armor into a doublet and tights, and his hair was loose, his tight ponytail gone. He wasn't carrying anything. He seemed to look past me, even though I knew there was absolutely nothing there. His tone was both ecstatic and desperate. "The Dawn Goddess has seen fit to grant me an incredible blessing, and the Twilight God to curse me anew."

What was there to say to that?

"I have never seen so clearly. I have been a sinner. What I took to be faith was built on cowardice I could not even see! I see now how deeply the chains of evil are rooted in our hearts, tendrils extending throughout all that we are... and yet, in one fell swoop, they have been uprooted, and replaced in equal scope, as though it had always been so."

"What are you talking about?"

"Have I not said it? The Goddess released me from the chains of Promathia and permitted me to see their workings! The dark god was angered, and bestowed his curse anew with greater strength--and, for reasons I cannot know, in a different form... that of the chains of envy. Yet the clarity remains."

Maybe I was crazy, but he was crazy too. This was a far cry from his earlier uptight reserve.

"As we speak, I envy you, your strength and your success and your possessions, even though I would never choose to pursue such worldly achievement. There is a dark part of me that resists even speaking to you. But I know that for what it is, and I must share this incredible experience."

Somehow it had never bothered me before that talking about my affiliations could make someone feel that way, but suddenly I wished I had been more discreet. "Sorry. I'm not sure I want to pursue worldly achievement anymore, either."

"No! The failing is mine. Do not think me above temptation! In the hours since this event, many times have I succumbed to the chains of envy and its accompanying hatred, wishing, and despair. I fear that I can no longer live up to my old position in the church, that I will shame myself in the eyes of those who looked up to me. My strength of will has faltered, shattered. It is only the glorious light of Altana that spurs me on, and the knowledge that, for some reason I cannot fathom, She chose me to receive Her blessing. She must intend great things for me, yet I am so inadequate, more inadequate than ever. I am not fit to exist, yet I must cling to this cursed existence, for no one else has seen what I have seen..."

"Aren't we all supposed to be cursed? How can you tell you're cursed more?"

"I can no longer stand it. It seems to overwhelm me. I buckle under its weight. I fall to my knees and weep. Something inside me has broken. I no longer know who I am. But perhaps this is only the effect of looking at it clearly. Perhaps it is our unawareness that is the blessing."

A sudden breakdown. Like me... but I wasn't this bad, was I? And why not Vhel and Tokko? "Have you talked to Vhel?"

"Yes. She is well, considering the circumstances."

"Does all this worry you at all?"

"Of course! How could it not? I worry that I will fail the Goddess and squander Her blessing! I worry that I will sink into despair and never emerge. I worry that the church will cast me out, for I can no longer feign virtue I never possessed. I worry that this incredible tale will never be believed."

"I mean that they took our weapons and locked the doors! Don't these people seem strange to you?"

A pause. "No more strange than the world now seems to me."

I had no idea what to say to that.

I didn't think much about what he said at first, or at least not that hard. I wasn't alone for long that time, not more than twenty minutes. The next visitor was me. Sorry, that sounded more dramatic than it was. I mean they took me to see Calder. Two of them came for me and a third was outside his door. He was in a room near mine, and identical, both connected by short corridors to a bigger room. I could see that there were other paths, but no hint as to which to take.

Calder was already on his feet. His bag was on the floor, and some junk spilled out of it. No weapons.

"You! Damn you! All of you!"

I flinched. "I'm sorry."

"That's it?" he yelled. "One person pushes back and you fold? I should have known! I should have known you were all talk!"

"I'm sorry, Calder, all right? None of that is important now. I just want to talk."

He gave a short bark of a laugh. "No. It isn't! Party's over, now you appease me and you move on, right?"

"No! I mean this is more important. That doesn't matter to me anymore."

"Yeah. And it doesn't matter to _me_ what I say about _you_. When you insult people, they're gonna get mad! Don't start it if you can't take it!"

"Why didn't you get mad before?"

"Just try it! I'm done taking shit!"

"What? Doesn't this seem weird to you?" I pleaded. "You were nothing like this!"

"Guess I met one too many people like you! Didn't you want me to get it together? Or did you just want someone to pick on who wouldn't hit back?"

I couldn't even tell what I had wanted. I opened my mouth, closed it again, and finally just said, "But why now? Here?"

"I just decided I wasn't going to be on the bottom anymore. I decided I was done being weak!"

Just decided. That was what Vhel said.

"They did something to you," I said.

He crossed his arms. "No."

"It's like you're a different person. But you remember me, and everything that happened..."

"You don't know what people are made of until you test them."

Was that really it? This might have been his first unnerving situation, but not mine. Objectively, I'd survived scarier things than this... so why was I so scared? Had I become a different person, too?

"Are you done? Get out."

There were so many things I wanted to say, but none of them seemed good enough. I stared at him, mouth open. He stared back, and everything about him said that he had meant that.

I glanced at the doctors. I left. They let me.

Instead of taking me back to my room, they led me to a new enclosure, bigger, with a second door on the far side. One of them left, one of them stayed. I walked around the perimeter, examining the walls, although there wasn't much to examine.

I thought about what it could mean to be a different person if you still had only your own experiences. I didn't feel like I was suddenly Calder, or my mother, or the archduke of Jeuno, just me, only I wasn't myself. The me I remembered wouldn't care whether Calder was mad, yet I cared. It was a feeling, not a thought, and two days ago I didn't feel it, and now I did. It definitely wasn't a decision. I guess I could have decided to care if I wanted to, but I always felt like not caring about incompetent strangers was an advantage. Now... well, if I could go back to the way I was before, I would, but if I could go back in every other way and still keep this kindness, I'd choose that, I thought. Why? Well, because I cared. It was circular. But would that new nice me choose it? Would she--I--immediately reject it? Would she help people and then sigh and say "I wish I weren't such a softie"? Thinking about it too much was kind of unnerving. I thought of Bournefant saying, "I no longer know who I am. But perhaps this is only the effect of looking at it clearly. Perhaps it is our unawareness that is the blessing."

He said he had changed. Could he be right that we had been cursed by the Twilight God? Were we being punished? But that was supposed to be the condition everyone was already in. I'd never put much stock in that idea. Humes are supposed to be cursed with apathy. I knew sometimes I didn't care about other people, but until I joined the wyrm hunters, I was usually the only one in a group who cared if it was actually any good at what it set out to do. How could someone who was hardly contributing call _me_ apathetic!? I remembered thinking. I had never felt like I had some deeply-rooted sin, but maybe I did. Bournefant said the curse was stronger this time, or at least that his was. He also said Altana released him from the chains of Promathia and permitted him to see their workings. That sure didn't happen to me.

The door we'd come in through opened. Two hooded doctors and Vhel. I wondered if they would just repeat the cycle of putting us together. I motioned for her to come with me, away from them. She looked to them first, but she did. They stayed where they were and watched, satisfied.

"Vhel, I'm sure of it, something happened to us. It's like we're different people. Bournefant said it was the _gods_."

She kept her even smile, and it was a moment before she answered. "Well, that's silly."

"You _just decided_ not to get angry. Calder _just decided_ at the same time to _start_ getting angry. He said he was done being weak. Why now?"

"I don't think I'm weak."

"Do you think Calder thought he was weak before that?" I suddenly wondered. "Does anyone think they're weak and stay that way?"

Vhel shrugged.

"You haven't... seen the workings of the chains of Promathia or anything like that, have you?"

"No," she said, with a hint of why-would-you-ask-that?

"Me neither," I said quickly. "That was what Bournefant said."

She smiled coolly. "He's a strange one."

No more strange than the world now seems to me, he had said. Maybe he was crazy, and maybe he did have a divine vision. How strange would the world seem if I saw the workings of the chains of Promathia? What exactly did that mean?

Sure enough, Tokko was next, but this time they didn't take Vhel away. "This again?" he said. "Can't I leave this place?" But he wasn't worried like me. He was bored, I realized, in the unbearable way I had been before, like sitting on a warming stove. I hadn't felt quite like that since this nervousness started. Was he like I used to be? I should be able to understand him, but I didn't understand myself. It was just something I used to feel and suddenly didn't. Was that what the workings of the chains of Promathia meant? Did Bournefant understand why people feel things? Why people do things? Or at least himself? Would it be strange to act like Tokko and fully understand why? Or Bournefant? Or anyone?

Tokko was not allowed to leave this place. His gaze wandered the room and he sighed. Maybe I should have talked to him, but instead I paced. I had chosen to be alone with my thoughts. Not a usual choice for me. How bizarre that some people find that painful and some people seek it out. How different are we all? Is it good for some and bad for others, or is that warming-stove feeling a lie? The chains of Promathia? What would have happened if I had ignored it? I couldn't try it anymore, not really. I could ask Tokko, or someone else, but we only seemed to talk past each other. It was like we spoke different languages. But where was my native tongue?

_I see now how deeply the chains of evil are rooted in our hearts, tendrils extending throughout all that we are... and yet, in one fell swoop, they have been uprooted, and replaced in equal scope, as though it had always been so._ I traced the outline of the door. How can all that we are be evil? How can all that we are be uprooted and replaced?

I heard Bournefant's voice, and I called him over. I didn't even know where to start. "Maybe you're right. What you said about all that we are being uprooted... I think that happened to all of us."

"Then you see what I see?" The possibility overjoyed him.

"No! No, I don't. Why do some people get bored and some scared, or--?"

He sobered, and answered like a friar, with composure. "Some say that the Twilight God cursed us differently to frustrate our efforts to reach the gates to Paradise."

"You mean if we could understand each other, we could work together and find Paradise?"

"We can find Paradise in our hearts, by letting go of desire and turning to Altana."

A platitude. " _That's_ what Promathia cursed us to get us to stop doing?"

He looked annoyed. "Our curse impedes it just as well."

"Why us? We sure didn't understand each other. Is this a punishment?"

"Is seeing the full extent of our chains a punishment?"

"Well, it's sure no present! You said your curse was stronger now. Maybe mine is too. Whatever happened, I don't like it one bit. What are we supposed to do now?"

"Describe to others all the beasts we see inside so clearly, that they may prepare to fight them."

"I don't see anything clearly! How do we fight them? How do we fix this!?"

"Only the light of Altana can break the chains of evil."

I got sarcastic, and not in a cool, collected way. "Great! So as soon as we find that, we're good!"

"The Goddess is always with us," he said, with a note of reproach, but then softened. "But the road to freedom is long."

I heard Calder shouting, and worry flared up in me. He was shouting at Tokko. "You want to pick a fight? Go ahead!"

Vhel was crossing the room, away from them.

Why should I have to worry? What could he do to me? I wouldn't have worried before, and that worked out fine all these years! It really was like a curse.

I named the chains: cowardice, apathy, rage, arrogance... I had to think. Envy. That was the one Bournefant mentioned. I felt a chill, and, though I had never been religious, I said a silent prayer: _Whatever I did, I'm sorry! I repent! Please. I'm afraid._

I heard a noise from behind, and I jumped. The door was open. The huge doll was behind me.

Somehow, I made a split-second decision. "In here!" I ducked past it, and I ran, but not for long.

I was in a hallway, lined on both sides with doors. Through their lattices I saw dolls in tiny rooms. Farther down, bats flitted across the hallway. I stopped short with a jolt, frozen like a rabbit, caught between them. Bournefant ran past me. The dolls did nothing. He darted into a room. I realized the door behind us had shut. Vhel stood behind me. She seemed practically calm, but maybe I exaggerated that out of annoyance. Calmer than I felt. Calder and Tokko were still in there. I hid.

With shaking hands I put on silent oil. I heard footsteps, deliberate, almost leisurely, not running. I also heard my heartbeat. They'll find me, I thought, they'll find me, and I knew I heard the shoes make a beeline for me, out of all the rooms. A hooded figure appeared for me, and in an instant I was ready, a moment of perfect reflexes. I reached out, I shoved it, and I took off, calling, "Run!" I heard a black magic incantation, but too late. I had surprised them. I was too far ahead.

I didn't recognize where I was. Every turn only seemed to lead me to stairs going up. I thought we were up high already, but I had no choice.

I reached a door at the top of spiraling stairs. Beyond it, a hallway stretched left and right, just like the place this all started, but there was no sign of a fight. Or a massacre. It was more out of superstition than "just in case" that I went right, the way we came from, but suddenly things started to look familiar.

Including, unfortunately, the giants. "Between dangers" was quickly becoming my least favorite feeling.

Bournefant chose the doctors. "You have powder, yes? Start. I'll delay them."

I didn't see Vhel.

I obeyed first and thought a moment later. "Why?" I called after him. "Just to be a knight? Don't you have some divine revelation to spread?"

"You must spread it," he called. But then he had to undercut his dramatic moment. "Actually, we seem to have lost them."

I was sure they would show up right then, but they didn't.

"Good. I don't think I'm cut out for that," I said, trying to laugh it off, unsuccessfully. That thought wasn't very funny.

Did Vhel decide not to run? Or did she, a mage, not have any oil? A pang of guilt hit me. If she had cast a spell instead, the dolls would have attacked. I hadn't thought about that. Everyone in my linkshell always carried it. Had there been time for me to do anything? I couldn't decide. I didn't know.

She occupied my thoughts, back and forth, until, finally, blessed daylight spilled into the tower, so much brighter and warmer-looking than whatever lit that forsaken place, and then fresh air and the smell of the sea, and then we were outside. I had never been so glad to see the harsh black rock of Qufim Island. But we weren't safe.


	3. Whether Mortals Will

"They said they worked for the government of Jeuno. If that's true, there could be guards at the entrance looking for us. This is the worst possible place this could have happened. There's no other way out."

"That was awfully strange behavior for a government."

"That was awfully strange behavior for anyone! All right, say they're not with the government. They could still have people in Jeuno mobilizing right now to catch us in the tunnel. How much powder do you have?"

"Hardly any. And you?"

Bad news. I breathed out heavily. "Not enough for both of us to go check and hide if we have to. How long do you think we've been here? A day, two? My company had plans to be here early Watersday. That could be tomorrow, or the day after. Let's hide out and wait for them."

He sounded less than happy, but he said, "Very well," and he quickened his pace as much as I did.

We hid behind a big rock overlooking the ocean. We made ourselves comfortable and worked out a plan: to make our remaining prism powder last, I would go alone, as early as possible--they might be there well before the sun--and wait at the mouth of the tunnel north. In front of the dark cave at night, I wouldn't need the powder. Bournefant would stay awake until then, watch for our pursuers, look for the moon while I slept, and wake me up if it was Watersday. If I didn't see my company by sunrise, I would have to wait inside the tunnel until our silent oil ran out. They did say to expect to get up early, but nothing was final that far in advance.

Once I calmed down a little, I noticed the cold. It wasn't horribly cold, more like just-keep-moving cold, not much worse than when I came here, but now I wasn't moving. I held my cloak around me and leaned against the rock, looking out at the sea. I watched the waves crash around a rock that jutted out of the water, the same sort of rock, big and black and stark.

"Willaraud was my closest friend. We were in perfect accord. I felt that he saw things as I did, but no more. He has become intolerable to me."

"Don't you... understand him now?"

"I understand him too well. That is why I can no longer stand him. He chastises us for our attachment to desire, yet he revels in his desire for our esteem. He believes himself to be without sin. That is arrogance."

"But arrogance is caused by Promathia, right? What if you had been cursed with arrogance?"

He thought about it. "If I were cursed and unaware of it, I would hope someone would tell me so."

"He wants to think he's good because he's arrogant, right? What if you tell him and he doesn't listen because he's arrogant? What if that had been you or me? What could we have done?"

"The function of the church is for so many to say so that it cannot be denied. However, too few can see the truth. He has fooled them all."

"No, Promathia fooled them all, and fooled Willaraud, and me, I guess! We're all just... doing things and not knowing why? We're all just doing Promathia's will?"

"We have the capacity to do the will of Promathia, or the will of Altana."

"What about our will? Or is that all there is?"

He was silent, but I knew. My will had changed so completely. Then he spoke. "I wish to fall asleep on a bed of moss in the deep woods as a choir sings a song so sad and lovely that statues would weep. How can these fruitless desires be those of a god? Yet they are wholly new to me, and of such different character from anything prior. At the same time, some wishes remain unchanged. I believe we are told to abandon desire because we are so inclined to believe Promathia's will to be our own. If we can understand our desires, perhaps we need far from fully do so. Do you see the sun beginning to set? I have never loved a sunset so much."

I let my head fall to the right. Featureless grayish water stretched from the rock to the sun, pierced by a ray of reflected orange light and framed on the other side by a vertical cliff. Much of the sky was cloudy, but the setting sun was visible. Not the best sunset in the world, but there was a sweetness to it, and I hadn't sat and watched one in a long time, and it was lovely. "We might never have seen it again."

"It is like a path to Paradise. Surely a god might walk upon that light and leave this world. Did those children of Altana who first sailed to Ulbuka follow such a road in search of gates beyond the sun?"

"I'm pretty sure it takes longer to sail to Adoulin than it does for the sun to set."

"Do you not understand? All my life I have never seen this path. Has Altana shown it to me, or is our curse such that the same sights strike our thoughts so differently that we might as well be looking in different directions?"

I was exasperated with him, but I was desperate to talk about the magnitude of what had happened. "I didn't like the way the doctors smiled. After everything changed. I knew I shouldn't trust them. No one believed me."

"Perhaps we each see a part of the truth. Perhaps in Paradise we see at once from all perspectives. A singular Paradise and a fallen world divided, like the legend of the mothercrystal, splitting into five and forming our world..."

"I thought Paradise was in our hearts," I said, but with more levity than annoyance. "If we each see a part of the truth, we have to cooperate, right? Like what you said about Promathia stopping us from working together to find the gates. But how do we do that? We want different things. We don't understand each other."

"It is as though we live in different worlds. To bridge them required a miracle. If we could come for ourselves to see all of them at once, surely that would be to know Paradise. Would that words could carry a feeling in such particulars as they would an instruction..."

I tried to feel what he felt. I imagined walking down the line of light, out on the dark ocean in the red evening, to gates in the sky. Paradise was supposed to be a place where all our burdens would be relieved. "It is nice to think about gates to Paradise," I said, an attempted bridge.

"I long for it now as never before. My heart aches with desire. The curse of envy is such that what I have does not please me."

Could I understand that? I remembered when I first left home, being dissatisfied, hungry to get somewhere. I hadn't felt that way in a long time. Maybe we got used to our curses and would get used to our new ones. "No wonder it's your favorite topic," I quipped, but I tried to imagine.

"Our curse _is_ a wonder, when viewed with fresh eyes! This is a sensation I had never before quite experienced. Theologians write treatises on the chains of evil, yet they are no more than tall tales of foreign lands. What a rare and precious thing, to have traveled as we have! Who would take a dubious page over the sight of a marid in the mist? Longing, heart pushing at the breast like a caged bird, like a meal too sweet. The almost painful leap of the heart as a sight strikes it just so. Envy like acid that fills the chest. I wish to know each of the chains so. I would gladly be cursed fivefold."

I found it hard to see it that way. "What happened to falling to your knees and weeping?"

He seemed to have forgotten about that, but he answered with his now-usual sincerity and conviction, and grandiosity. "For sorrow to be understood, mapped and catalogued, as we do the beasts of the world, some scholar must weep."

I tried to sleep early, but that was impossible. I couldn't get comfortable on the hard, uneven rock, and I couldn't stop thinking. Was there even anything we could do if they found us? What if there was a bounty on my head and a rival company turned me in? What if this spot was the haunt of some awful undead thing? Just what did Bournefant mean?

Time passed, my eyes felt sandy, and my mind kept running in circles, for what felt like hours. When Bournefant woke me up, I knew I had slept, but not much. I struggled to keep my eyes open, but it was just about pitch-dark anyway, clouds hiding the stars.

"How much time has passed I cannot say, but my will threatens to fail me."

"Well, guess," I said, crabby.

"Perhaps two o'clock. I have not seen the moon."

Good news: I didn't have to move just yet. Bad news: I had to make a decision. Going there and back would use up our powder. I sighed. "Hopefully it'll rise soon. Or maybe I won't even need the powder. How well do giants see in the dark?"

"I don't know."

I groaned and sat up. I hated not knowing.

"I wish you luck," he said, and the dark shape receded and lay down.

The night was much colder. The thought of going out in the cold and the darkness made me want to curl up and sleep. I was no stranger to getting up early, but normally I did it in a warm, lighted house with a water closet and a good breakfast. A good, warm breakfast. I would have been hungry if I weren't so tired. I never saw the moon.

I woke up late that morning. Bournefant still looked asleep. It was still cold. I would really have appreciated closing my eyes again, but panic at the thought of missing my linkshell seized me. I scrambled for my bag.

I sprinted, invisible and silent, past the tower and then through the long, dark north tunnel.

People. Lots of them. I spotted my organization's leader immediately by the silhouette of the bow she held, almost as tall as she was. "Tasi!" I called, closing the distance between us. "It's me, Saidie!"

She looked around, alert. "Why are you invisible?"

"Sealed--training as a dark knight--like you told me to do," I panted.

"Hah! I told you to train, so you're training right now? That's your story? You think you can hop over here real quick and I'll give you points for showing up?"

"No! I think the government of Jeuno experimented on us. We need you to help us get out of here."

The tip of her tail curled. "Yeah? You and the voices in your head? Do I look like I have time for this?" I saw people turning to look.

"You think I'm crazy? I _know_ something happened. Whoever they were, they chased us. They still have three prisoners in the tower."

"Oh, you and your _party_? Does someone need a raise? Go change right now and come straight back here. That's an order!" Everyone around could hear her. Tasi was always loud.

"Look, I don't have enough powder, and there's a real chance that the guards are looking for me. How about you send someone with me and find out?"

"Someone come here and warp Saidie!" she called.

"No!" I shouted. "That'll take me to Jeuno!"

Half my linkshell was gathering around us, and some people outside it.

She leaned forward, a forceful presence for someone so small. "You want to be in my company, you do what I say!"

My blood ran hot. For the first time since I was a child, I felt like I couldn't control myself. I hated it. "Fine! I've had enough of doing what you say! You want everyone to--to follow your every word twenty-four-eight just to feed your power trip! You shouldn't be a leader! You should be a beastmaster!"

People laughed, including Tasi, showing her teeth. "Good riddance! Anyone else here think I shouldn't be a leader?" My heart hammered. Why did I have to do that?

"That would be nice," called a member of a rival company, and everyone laughed. No one in my company said anything.

"Show's over," Tasi shouted. "Back to where you were." They all obeyed. I walked away from her, but I couldn't leave. I wandered around the crowd, looking for a sympathetic face. The prism powder was mostly gone, and I got all kinds of looks.

I saw Rickard in his flowing blue bard's shirt, another layer visible underneath against the cold, the person I had known best in the linkshell. "Listen, please, I need help! The government of Jeuno experimented on me. I can't go back there."

"What? Is that what this is about?"

"Fine. Don't believe me. I sound crazy. Just come with me after this and teleport me and someone else out of here." I held up my hands. "That's all I want."

"Who is this?"

"Oh, come on. He was in my party when they captured us. There are three more still in Delkfutt's Tower."

"So if we go to Delkfutt's Tower, we'll see all that?"

"Maybe. There are locked doors. Don't look for them alone, though, _please_. There are a lot of them and they're powerful. I want to tell some other government."

"Saidie, you don't sound like yourself."

"I'm not! I'm not myself! They did something to me."

"I'll come with you after this and we'll talk to someone, all right?"

"Believe me or don't, but don't patronize me, _all right_? Can I count on you for a teleport or not?"

"I'm not patronizing you." He sounded genuinely hurt, but how could he mean that?

"You are."

"Why are you acting like this?"

"Why am I acting like this? Why am _I_ acting like this? Because this really happened! Why does anyone act like anything?"

Suddenly, a chorus of voices called, "Behemoth!" and everyone but me left.

If I went, the behemoth might get me. If I didn't, something else would, sooner or later. I sighed, accepting the fear, and followed, carefully, at a distance.

"King! King behemoth!"  


The crowd ahead of me did nothing to hide the massive creature, but to see the people engaging it, I had to circle the perimeter until I was standing behind some tarutaru.

These organizations often don't like each other, but they almost always follow the letter of the alliance of Altana, and don't turn their weapons on other people. Instead the other groups stay back and hope the monster does enough damage to the party that found it that they have to back off. This time, that was my company.

They were short-handed, and it was a long, messy fight. At first we followed at a safe distance as they ran it around, too far to tell exactly what was going on. After a while, a smaller force kept an eye on them and the rest of us sat down. The sun was climbing, but it was still cold. I tried to decide whether to talk to Rickard again, or who else to try. All my friends and connections were part of some other person's life.

"Come here!" someone shouted, and then, "They're down!" I stood up reflexively. Someone shoved me out of the way, and I ran with the crowd. The behemoth was in bad shape, but another group already had its attention. As the chaos settled, I saw several people motionless on the ground. I waited for someone to lure the behemoth elsewhere, but instead it stopped and collapsed, with a long, deep, moaning howl.

Without thinking, I walked towards my company. My former company. The healers were up and tending to the wounded. As more of them sat up, I heard someone say, "Over already."

"It was close--if we'd had Saidie..."

"What was that even about?"

"That goddamn two-faced lunatic! What's her problem!?" Tasi shouted, stomping the ground, in spite of her injuries. Two-faced was the last thing I wanted to be. I hated the idea. But I couldn't deny it.

I quietly walked back to another group.

"Twenty thousand gil to come down by the tower and teleport me and my friend," I said, desperately.

"For making Tasi that mad, I'll do it for free," said a tarutaru. Laughter and a few cheers followed. He was passingly familiar; I knew his affiliation, but not his name. His red hair and headband contrasted with his black-and-white robe.

At that moment I didn't care one way or the other how many people hated Tasi. I just said, "Thank you! Follow me!"

He did, but he kept talking. "Can't-aru imagine why anyone listens to her. Maybe no one else will put up with jerks like them. Jerks and cheaty cheaters. I don't help anyone with that linkpearl if I can help it."

Didn't he know I had been in it? I didn't say anything, but I wondered. Why had I listened to her? To get ahead. Why had I wanted to get ahead? I just had. What else was there to want? I had thought. Did that make me so horrible?

"Saidie!" someone called, and two now-familiar figures faded from invisibility into view.

"Bournefant! Vhel! You escaped! What happened?"

"I just kept hiding," Vhel said. "They chased you, and I waited, and after a while they came back. And what they were saying... they did do something to us. I think you're both right, sort of." She looked at Bournefant nervously.

"I heard them walk in again, and one saying, '...That's all. The same equipment this tower has always housed.'

"The other one said... 'Kuluu exposed to the full effects of the Meltdown became grotesquely twisted.' He was skeptical, and not happy. Not as calm as the ones we talked to."

"Kuluu?" I asked.

"That's what it sounded like. I don't know what he meant. The first one was more calm, but impatient with him. 'This is a controlled experiment.'

" 'But you did observe an effect?'

" 'In this experiment, yes. The aspect of the Emptiness within the subjects has been shifted.' "

"The Emptiness?" I interrupted. "Within the subjects? Us? Isn't that some kind of disaster in the Far East?"

For once, Vhel looked perturbed. "Are you sure?"

"No, but if it means an empty stomach or something, how can it have an aspect?"

"They said it was stable." She sounded less than certain. "I think. The grumpy one asked, 'And it's stable?' and the answer was..." She took a moment to recall it.

" 'Individuals whose dominant fault is not characteristic of their race have occurred for thousands of years. By this time they are more common than otherwise. The rate is increasing.'

"That made him mad. 'You think I'm not well aware?'

"The other one ignored that. 'These specimens appear to be indistinguishable from such cases, although this degree of purity of aspect is no longer common.'

"He didn't like that either. 'This is irrelevant. Tell me when you understand your own results.' I heard one of them leave and then the other. That was all."

My mind raced. "We're probably going to die. We need to tell someone. We need a doctor who isn't working with the government of Jeuno."

"Where to?" asked the tarutaru, unbothered, but friendly, curious, not businesslike.

I hesitated. "Everywhere. We need to find a government who believes us before they find us. But we need linkpearls. We have to plan to meet up."

He was already producing some, a color I knew.

"Are you just letting us into Unsworn? I don't even know if these two are trained enough. You don't even know they're not spies."

"Is this important or not?" he said, and handed them out.

"You believe me?"

"Not really, but you've gotta believe yourself, right-aru?"

Another strange one.

"Everybody ready? Next stop, everywhere!"

That was when I came here and you wouldn't listen to me. After that I did see a doctor. She said she couldn't find anything wrong or strange at all. I looked for another one. Just to be safe. Nothing.

Finally, in my room, perched on the bed, I contacted Bournefant and Vhel. "Excuse me. Calling the Delkfutt's Tower party. How did your mission go?"

I expected to have to explain myself, but no one asked. Vhel said, "Fine."

"What do you mean, fine?"

"No one arrested me. I told an official what happened. They were polite."

"And they're looking into it?"

"I don't know."

I sighed. "They don't believe you, do they?"

"Maybe not, but now they know."

"They didn't-aru believe a word they heard," the tarutaru put in. "That was all courtesy."

Vhel didn't comment further.

"Great." I was disappointed, but not surprised. "Bournefant?"

"The truth of what transpired at Delkfutt's Tower is blasphemy."

"So they wouldn't hear it? Or you didn't tell them?"

"The church purports to seek the truth. It was my duty to tell them, what happened and everything I can now see. The church and its ideals could not be more at odds. My once-dearest friend denounced me."

I rolled my eyes and let myself fall onto the bed. "Did you tell the government?"

"They would not permit it."

"We have to get someone on our side. We're in danger. Come to Bastok. They said I was paranoid. With three of us, I think they might listen."

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////

She looked pleadingly from Iron Eater to Naji. Iron Eater considered it.

"I can't make you any promises. But I'm not dismissing this. I will pass your account on. Perhaps we should consult a scientist."

She still seemed worried, but said nothing more.

Bournefant spoke. "I wish to find the two of our party who remain. Unless an investigation is launched, I intend to return to Qufim Island and await their escape."

Iron Eater just said, "Don't hold your breath," but not unkindly.

**Author's Note:**

> Q. WTF?  
> A. Enneagrams  
> Q. More?  
> A. Planned but it'll be a long time


End file.
